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Mac and Linux users can mount read-only versions of their Copy folder directly to their filesystem by making use of a utility in the Desktop Agent. This lets you browse your Copy folder without ever...

academiPad's insight:

I love Copy more and more! Haven't tried this out yet, but with my new MacBook Air only having 128GB of storage, I will certainly soon look into that.

This new app ecosystem for collaborative writing might be interesting for working with co-authors on papers. Especially the integrated chat and an in-buiild checklist can be useful for larger co-writing projects in academia, although the maker of this app do not seem to have recognized this yet.

More and more, the fragments of your life exist as particles on a disk mounted inside your computer—disks susceptible to temperature changes, power surges, fire, theft, static, and just plain wear and tear.

academiPad's insight:

Crashplan is the cloud backup solution of choice in this article, and it is a good one. From free options if you find a buddy who also lets his computer running 24/7 to reasonably priced true cloud solutions, CrashPlan has the right backup solution for you.

If I could only use one web tool for the rest of my life, I would choose Diigo to highlight & annotate the web. This post tells you why Diigo is so amazing.

academiPad's insight:

Do you sometimes wonder how people were doing research in the pre-internet age? I do this quite often, and do you know what I am thinking right after? How the hell did I do research on the web before I knew about Diigo?!!

So iPad's boost learning in HigherEd: "The university reports that students participating in the program scored on average 23 percent higher on their exams than previous UC Irvine medical school classes. One group of medical students at the school even formed a group to discuss how the technology could be used at the medical school, and students have built new apps specifically for healthcare because of their experience with the program."

There's quite a long review and brief tutorial of Roon here: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/roon-is-a-slick-easy-to-use-blogging-platform-you-may-want-to-try/ I particularly like the comment in the summary "Sometimes we get caught up in complex blogging platforms, plugins and more. Roon takes all of that away and ensures that you focus on what matters the most – your words." A rich feature set isn't always an advantage. Roon certainly isn't a competitor to WordPress, but it does make it easy to just get down to writing. For students that can be quite an advantage.

I just tried Roon out and made a post (on my Mac, by the way). I wanted to try it to see if it was something to share with students. It was pretty easy, though figuring out how to change the title of the post from "Untitled" was frustrating (I assumed the "Header" was the title...not so. You just click on it after you save and can change it in the sidebar.).

I'm not sure what the point of giving your blog a title was when it posts as your user name and never shows your blog title. My advice: use your blog title as your user name.

In this fun and quirky animated video, Intel expert and anthropologist, Genevieve Bell, describes a future in which we have "relationships" with computers.

academiPad's insight:

Great video about computing in 2020 for two ways: First, some really nice overview how computing has evolved and will evolved in the near past and future. And second: really nice blend of talking head video and RSA style animated presentation.

Working of PowerPoint presentations on ios devices is a big problem nowadays. Many companies are working on developing a tool which makes html5 files from presentation that work on ios platform. In my opinion 'HTML5Point' created by DigitalOfficePro is very useful and simple way to convert PowerPoint presentation to html5 format.

For years, I kept hearing how awesome Evernote was: how it could store everything you possibly needed, make it available everywhere, and how scores of people couldn't live without it. I tried it multiple times, and never saw the appeal until now.

academiPad's insight:

The best tip in this article is maybe to keep lots of different notebooks with shorter notes, instead of adding stuff to a single notebook from time to time. So instead of thinking as an Evernote note as a page to which you can easily go back later and add stuff, think about it maybe as a little box where you can throw in lots of little pieces of papers you jotted down ideas.

Editor’s note: Steve Wishman is a presentation designer at Prezi. Known for creating rich cinematic presentations for TED presenters and Silicon Valley leaders, engineers, startups, and more, Steve comes to Prezi with a lofty but simple goal: to create breathtaking visual stories that help change the world.

This is a blog post from prezi. If you now think that this one pushes prezi as a tool, you are correct. However, the first two of three tips (Create an outline first, Keep it clear) are true for every presentation software. The third tip about camera movement is where prezi can become useful - if useful enough for you, you have to decide yourself.

We all have to go to meetings. Some of us have to take notes on those meetings. Here's one workflow for making sure those notes are as useful as possible.

academiPad's insight:

What is really great about this article is how it discusses how note taking can be integrated with your task management. Check the "Action items" section:

"The next step is to make sure I do what I need to do after the meeting.

The key is OmniFocus and its Mail Drop service; put simply, that means I can email to-do items to myself. For this to work, I sync OmniFocus with the Omni Sync Server. You have to apply to use the Mail Drop service; when I did, I received my invite in a matter of minutes. Once accepted, I set up a unique email address that is my direct link to the Sync Server.

Using the latest version of Drafts, I configured a customized email action called ‘Email to OmniFocus Mail Drop’. This action sends a given note to my personalized OmniFocus email address using the first line of the note as the subject."

Is your iPad getting slow? Check out these 7 tricks to speed up your iPad. This post delivers long-term results, and it explains what does NOT work as well.

academiPad's insight:

My first-gen iPad really got slow over time, up to a point that it drove me nuts! I didn't want to buy a new one yet, so I researched and then wrote a post (the best one you will find online, naturally) how to get some more life out of your iOS device. Some things might surprise you.

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